The eMachines T5246 is its latest entry into the budget priced desktop market. This low priced PC has a good storage capacity and good expansion options, but the graphics capability, power supply and small monitor are less than optimal.

System Specifications

The T5246 is one of the most expensive of the budget desktops currently being offered by the personal computer manufacturers. Even so at an average price of $620 for a complete system, it is not exactly a luxury item. None of the major manufacturer’s like HP or Dell compete well in the lower priced desktop market. This specific model will give you everything you might want in a basic desktop machine and with that in mind, it is a good buy for the money. The machine is fully capable of running windows vista since it comes with 2 BG of RAM and a dual core processor.

eMachines T5246 Average Price $620 CPU 2.21 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Memory 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM Graphics 128 MB (shared) Nvidia GeForce 6150SE Hard drive 400 GB, 7,200 rpm Optical drive 16x dual-layer DVD burner Operating system Windows Vista Home Premium

The T5246 is a pre-built retail system available in only one configuration, you can’t mix and match components before you buy it, which is really a shame. The T5246 comes with a 2.2-GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ CPU and two sticks of 1 GB PC2-5300 memory for 2 GBs total mounted on a Gateway motherboard with integrated nVidia GeForce 6150SE nForce 405 graphics. The 400 GB Western Digital Caviar hard drive is a reasonable amount of storage in today’s climate where everyone downloads both video and audio files and is the largest hard drive available from a vendor in this price range.

The T5246’s black-and-silver mini-tower case is a no-frills design with no front panel to cover the external drives and connectivity ports. The other specifications for the system have not changed much over the past few years. There is the standard DVD/CD combo burner and a memory card reader to transfer files from camera and other portable devices.

The T5246 is fast enough to play web based games and most of the less graphic intensive PC based games. But the 17-inch, $190 eMachines E17T4W LCD monitor with 1280 by 720 native resolution that comes included in the price of the system has only a VGA input.

While not fantastic, the computer scores the highest in all tests for running normal applications and performing multitasking operations associated with standard business applications of any desktop in the under $750 class.

Its lack of a 3D graphics card will limit your ability to play high-end 3D games. There is a free PCI express slot available but the power supply can only accommodate the most basic 3D video cards. So this machine is not for the serious gamer.

The eMachines has a multifunction keyboard and a ball driven mouse included. Gateway’s setup guides and online documentation for this system are helpful and well done, and a final plus is the addition of a small set of dual speakers.

eMachines’ customer service and technical support policies are typical for this product category. One year of parts and labor warranty is all that is provided and that is also typical in this class computer. You also get the BigFix application used by eMachines and Gateway systems, which is a pretty decent diagnostic program that keeps you informed about the health of the hardware and what to do if there is a problem. They also provide generous support hours, which run from 5 a.m. to 12 a.m. (PT), seven days a week. However, there is no toll free number. You will have to pay for the call. You can also find various help documents on eMachines’ Web site.

Conclusion

The T5246 is a full-fledged Windows Vista PC for less than $700 and comes with the largest hard drive in its price category. It is a very good budget desktop, with pretty much every feature you’d want in a day-to-day PC. It features can do everything the average PC user needs. Unless you want to upgrade its components or are a serious gamer, you won’t go wrong for the price.